The concept was to structure the contents of the opening show spatially towards something that could operate with the conceptual ideas amalgamating stage design with architecture. Visually, the origins of the stage architecture were derived and influenced by the painting “The Sea of Ice” by the 18th century German Romantic artist, Caspar David Friedrich.

The stage consisted of a structure set metaphorically in vertical ice floes rising out of a 600m² folded stage plane. The vertical elements of the stage were built using traditional construction scaffolding covered with material textiles and back projection screens. The folded horizontal stage planes, originally computer generated, based on 3D drawings, consisted of a grid of wooden girders covered with plywood sheets – a technique also used in constructing climbing walls. Given this technique, all elements are earmarked to have an afterlife beyond the “Winter Universiade” and as such will be recycled as climbing wall-construction. (Text: Annette Erlenwein)